They were a team considered a national championship contender entering the season. They returned a quartet of superstars on offense from a 2006 squad that rose as high as No. 2 before losing its last two games. But then came their horrific start, the upset loss of all upset losses to begin the season followed by a demolition the following week.

The team that began the season ranked fifth in both polls was not only 0-2 and unranked, but in turmoil.

There were calls for coach Lloyd Carr to be fired, nationwide bewilderment about how a team with the tradition of Michigan could have lost its last four games. There was wonder whether the team would give up, and the two losses would roll into a third, and fourth, and so on.

Then the Wolverines started to bounce back.

First, Michigan won big over Notre Dame in Week 3, then did the same against Penn State. Yet despite the wins, there was still no reason to pay attention anymore; the Wolverines were no longer championship relevant and the turmoil was a thing of the past.

The Wolverines were forgotten.

But the two wins turned into three, and four, and more. They returned to the national polls two weeks ago, after their fifth straight win.

They won a night game on national television last Saturday at Illinois -- six in a row.

Tomorrow, they host a miserable Minnesota team, probably seven in a row.

Michigan is not a national championship contender, not with those two losses that began its season. But the Wolverines are undefeated in the Big Ten.

It's just Michigan and Ohio State at the top of the league standings, business as usual. The Wolverines may yet wind up in the Rose Bowl. They may yet turn the disaster that was the start of the season into a successful year.

"I think they've proven to be resilient," Carr said of his team's growth since the start of the season. "I think what's been exciting is when you're not at full strength, it's exciting as a coach to watch guys step up and perform in a way that helps you in spite of their inexperience or whatever it may be that they're dealing with."

Michigan is not alone among the forgotten. There are other teams that are trying to salvage seasons after unexpectedly falling and losing their place in the nation's consciousness.

Like Michigan, those programs have also gone about their business and may still wind up having hugely successful seasons.

USC is one. West Virginia is another.

The Mountaineers, who were No. 3 in the preseason AP poll, lost to South Florida, their only defeat. But for a Big East team to make a run at the BCS championship game it needed to be unbeaten. One-loss teams from the SEC and Pac-10 can contend, maybe the Big 12, but not a conference whose sexiest names include Rutgers and Louisville.

Since that loss to the Bulls, West Virginia has won a couple, decisively, against teams it should beat. Tomorrow is a major matchup against Rutgers. A win over the Scarlet Knights and suddenly the Mountaineers are right there in the race for the conference crown, right there for a spot in a BCS bowl -- not the championship, but one of the coveted 12 spots reserved for the nation's elite.

The Trojans, meanwhile, suffered a loss every bit as egregious as Michigan's. Southern Cal was No. 1 before the season started, not just in the two major polls but in just about every publication on every newsstand.

There was wonder whether this Trojan team was even better than the ones that won national championships just a few years ago, led by the likes of Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush, LenDale White and Lofa Tatupu.

But then USC struggled. The Trojans won, yet were strangely lackadaisical in victory. Then Troy fell, at home against a Stanford team that just the week before lost by 38 points to Arizona State.

The next week USC barely beat a bad Arizona team, and with that the Trojans slipped from the national championship picture, falling to 14th in the AP despite a win and out of the collective consciousness.

A decisive win over Notre Dame last week showed USC is still capable of winning impressively, but lots of teams have won impressively against the Fighting Irish this year. Hell, it's how Michigan began to turn its season around.

But because of the litany of losses that have littered the college football landscape this fall, USC with its one defeat, so long as it doesn't lose for a second time, can climb back into the national championship picture, back into the country's consciousness.

And the Trojans can do it this week.

They play at Oregon, the No. 5 team in the country, the Pac-10 team that has essentially taken USC's spot as the league's championship contender.

Southern Cal, which coach Pete Carroll said had to deal with poor air quality while practicing this week due to the wildfires in the southern part of the state, can take that back by winning in Eugene. And just as the Trojans plummeted after their performances against Stanford and Arizona, they'll jump up by beating the Ducks.

Arizona State and California lie ahead. Those wins would be every bit as impressive as any a one-loss LSU team would have, and better than any a one-loss Oklahoma would have.

"They're the most productive in every single category you can look at (offensively)," Carroll said of Oregon. "They're just killing the numbers."

Regarding the quality of the team's opposition, he added, "When we were starting out, Washington and Oregon were the top teams year in and year out and there's been a little bit of a shift over the years. Now all of the teams are difficult. Our most difficult games, by far, are in conference.

“Out of conference we've really handled our games well and had big margins of victory, but in conference it just doesn't happen."

USC was cast aside, but it's a demon lurking on the fringe of the championship chase. Michigan and West Virginia lost national title relevancy, but have quietly gone about the task of creeping to the top of the respective conference standings.

There are others -- Wake Forest and Clemson, Penn State and Alabama, Wisconsin and Cal -- teams that won't win titles but can clutter their conference races and still reach major bowls.

They're teams that were forgotten. But they're far from gone.

What We Learned

For seven weeks, there was no player who stood out above the rest, no one so spectacular that he was the one thought of as the best player in the country. There was no one who could rightly claim the Heisman Trophy.

In the eighth week, someone finally did.

He's only a sophomore, and not a single sophomore has ever won the Heisman, but Florida quarterback Tim Tebow had a brilliant day in a big game, and when you look at that afternoon in an upset win at Kentucky – outdueling Andre Woodson, another Heisman candidate -- there's finally a front-runner.

Tebow has thrown for 1,711 yards and 17 touchdowns against just three interceptions. On top of that, he's run for 578 yards and 10 more touchdowns. Last week against Kentucky, which just the week before had knocked off then-No. 1 LSU, Tebow threw for 256 yards and ran for 78, threw four touchdown passes and ran for another score.

Now just because Tebow gave a Heisman-type performance in a big game on a big stage does not mean the award is his to lose. There are other legitimate contenders who will have the opportunity to show themselves against quality opponents before a big audience.

One was last night, when Boston College quarterback Matt Ryan was up against No. 8 Virginia Tech on national television. It was the only game of the night, and though the city of Boston was tuned in to the World Series, much of the rest of the country was watching.

Another candidate with an opportunity like both Tebow and Ryan had is Dennis Dixon, whose Oregon Ducks host USC tomorrow. Kentucky's Woodson, who had just as good a day as Tebow last Saturday only his team fell just short, could easily overtake Tebow.

A running back like Michigan's Mike Hart, whose Wolverines must keep winning, is in the race with 1,078 yards in six games.

But last weekend, a front-runner finally emerged. Tebow had the first Heisman-like day of the season.

Game of the Week

Heading into last night's game between Boston College and Virginia Tech down in Blacksburg, Va., five undefeated teams remained in Div. I-A.

By the end of this weekend there could realistically be just one -- Hawaii.

Virginia Tech had a legitimate shot to take down the unbeaten Eagles (the game took place after this writing).

Tomorrow evening, undefeated Kansas has to travel to Texas A&M and Arizona State, at 7-0, hosts a Cal team that has lost two in a row but prior to those losses had climbed as high as No. 2.

And then there's the game of the week -- No. 1 Ohio State at 25th-ranked Penn State.

Much like last night's game in Blacksburg was the first big test of the season for BC, Happy Valley will be the site of Ohio State's biggest challenge to date. The Buckeyes are 8-0 but not a single one of their victims are ranked. The Nittany Lions have two losses, but they're to two good teams -- Michigan and Illinois. And the matchup is a bad one for the Buckeyes.

Penn State's strength is its defense. Ohio State's weakness is its young offense.

The Nittany Lions hold teams to just 15 points per game, fourth-best in the entire nation. The Buckeyes boast the best scoring defense in the country, allowing a shade under eight points per game, but their offense only put up big numbers against Northwestern and Kent State -- not exactly BCS contenders.

If Penn State -- the last team to beat Ohio State in a regular season game, at Happy Valley in 2005 -- can hold Ohio State's offense in check, it can pull off the upset.

"The thing I like about Penn State is they're strong and they're tough and they're sure tacklers," said Ohio State coach Jim Tressel. "They don't make a bunch of errors. When you have a senior quarterback (Anthony Morelli), you know, it certainly helps you get the ball in the right place. They've got playmakers and they get the ball in the hands of those playmakers. ... Defensively, they're just so sound. You are going to earn every inch you get."

Meanwhile, Penn State coach Joe Paterno said, "I don't think you can go in there and say, `Hey, that's the No. 1 team so now we have got to do this and we got to do that.' We've got to play the football we know how to play. And if somebody happens to be as good as Ohio State, you hope you can compete with them. Whether you can or you can't, you never know until you play. But they're a fine football team."

A win by the Nittany Lions would be tremendous for Penn State, but it's a team that is likely outside the BCS looking in no matter what happens tomorrow night.

But for the Buckeyes, victory would be the first step toward legitimizing their ranking. Wins over Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan the following three weeks would set it in stone.